Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Fragments – Session 4: Bhuddas and Bubbas – Part 1: Caraturth

Session 4 happened Friday, October 21, 2011.

This campaign uses the Hero System, 5th Edition, with much Traveller material grafted on. I am making use of the Hero Traveller books published by ComStar Games. Sadly, these books went out of print when Mongoose Publishing purchased the rights to produce all things Traveller. Mongoose is doing good things, so no hate mail.

Week 5, Day 1:
The Company decides that the next system they want to explore is Krakatoa System. It will take two Jump 2s to get there, but it was known to be a source of Berynium, a metal necessary to produce the cores of jump engines and not naturally found on Maresfield.

Krakatoa is a T-type world, but is a large moon orbiting one of the system’s gas giants instead of having an orbit of its own. Its orbit is unstable and the world is slowly spiraling in to the gas giant, with an expected impact in 4,000 to 5,000 years. The pre-Crash star charts indicate it had a Class B starport, so The Company is somewhat hopeful of survivors and some level of technology.

Additionally, Caraturth, the mid-point of the trip, is the home of the Order Grar is a part of and he has a vested interest in stopping there. When he reports back in to the Order, he is entrusted with a copy of all records of the Order on Maresfield for the last 80 years. If the Order is still active on Caraturth, he is to submit the records to the head temple for approval. This includes Grar’s induction into the Order and elevation to Lector.

Week 5, Day 2:
Nomen files a flight plan with the Maresfield Exploratory Committee. It indicates the Just Lucky will jump from Maresfield to Caraturth to Krakatoa and then back along the same route. Normally, getting the flight plan through the Committee can take a week or more, but Nomen knows where all the right people sit and has all the right paperwork prepared, so the entire process only takes a day. The downside is that Nomen and his wife now have a dinner appointment with one of the chief bureaucrats and his wife, a couple they loathe. Nomen’s wife sets the date for the get-together two days after the Just Lucky is expected back. And he better not be late.

Week 5, Day 3:
The Just Lucky jumps out of the Maresfield system, heading to Caraturth. During the one week jump, Cyrano constructs five McGuffins, using one of the bars of Red Gold Phoenix Salvage held onto from the run to Guruphon. Grar spends the week memorizing all 80 years worth of Order records.

Week 6, Day 3:
The Just Lucky arrives in Caraturth system. An active sensor sweep of the system brings to life an old navigation buoy in orbit over the planet Caraturth. A recorded message from the buoy provides instructions on where to land and what frequency to contact Caraturth Station, which is down on the planet. The Company and crew has some worries about the buoy being VIRUS-infected, but they quickly determine that the buoy is too simple and small to hold the VIRUS.

During the flight in from the jump point, Max calls in on the frequency specified and gets a very surprised junior member of the order on the other end. After a delay to get a more senior member of the Order, contact is made and the Just Lucky arranges to drop off an away team while the ship itself goes to refuel. When the ship enters orbit, Grar and max use their psionics to verify there is a population on the planet. They do, plus they notice a few minds verifying them. Grar is able to get a lock on one of the minds, but does not have the power to get a message across from this distance. Max has the power, but cannot establish a lock. [This is a recurring theme between the two of them.]

The Low Port for Caraturth is a grass field – the only grass field on the planet, as Caraturth has no native biosphere. The Order of Sacre Illuminae on Caraturth consists of several interconnected monasteries built into adjacent peaks of a large mountain. They are sealed from the high CO2 atmosphere, but there are large window-walls exposing open areas to the sunlight from the red primary. A sealed walkway, consisting of several large sections of transparent material extends to the Low Port landing field, where it connects to a larger reception chamber with airlocks. There are several dignitaries there to greet the PCs. Grar can identify robes indicating all five branches of the Order amongst the assemblage.

As Grar is a lector in the Order, he is the primary speaker for the PCs. The primary speaker for the Order introduced himself as Abbot Balvis. Grar explained that the PCs are an exploratory/mercantile company, of which he is a member. He then presented the combined records for the Order on Maresfield to the Abbot for verification and validation. The Abbot accepted the records, handing them off to a member of the Archivae for review. He then invited the PCs to a meal while the records were reviewed and the Just Lucky was away refueling.

During the meal, discussion was had about how the Order had weathered the period since the Crash. The abbot explained that the monasteries were designed to be maintained over the long term with minimal resources, so they had not had any social upheaval or loss of life. The data systems were isolated from all external systems and so the VIRUS had not been able to spread here. They had been running short on supplies to maintain the datasystems and had initiated a project to hand copy the material into books for preservation.

After a quick discussion amongst themselves, the PCs offered what spare parts they had themselves and the computer core they had secured from Guruphon Station. The monks were overjoyed at receiving these items and offered access to all of the preserved astrogation data and technical specifications they had. The PCs tried not to drool too much while accepting the deal. The abbot also requested passage for a delegation to Maresfield so that formal communications could be re-opened between branches of the Order and official ordinations could be delivered. The PCs agreed to this, but explained they were going to Krakatoa first. The abbot asked if they could use a trained planetologist (albeit one with little field experience) for that part of the trip and the PCs stated they would be very grateful for the loan of one. And so Brother Kurts and his bodyguard, Sister Gunita, joined the crew of the Just Lucky.

Week 6, Day 4:
In the morning, Grar is informed that the Maresfield records have been reviewed and all ordinations approved, including his own. A small Ceremony of Ordination is planned for mid-day, where Grar will trade his provisional robes (which all members of the Order on Maresfield wear) for a set of confirmed robes appropriate for his rank. The ceremony would have been sooner, but they needed to get Grar’s measurements and have properly tailored robes created (as a Low Waldi, he is a foot and a half shorter than the other members, who are all human).

After the Just Lucky returns from refueling operations, the trade of computer parts and core for complete pre-Crash astrogational data and other technical specifications happens. At mid-day the Ceremony of Ordination happens and Grar receives his robes as a fully confirmed Lector of the Order of Sacre Illuminae. A few hours later, the PCs and the new crew members return to the Just Lucky, head out to the nearest jump-point, and initiate the jump to Krakatoa.

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